in 2012, includingsuperstormsandy, causedeconomic damage worth $1 billion. >>> a cooler day in australia, but alerts for brush fires remain. rachel ferguson here with the latest on that rachel. >> it was indeed cooler today. a cold front moving through the southeast helped those temperatures to come down. quite significantly. however, there is going to be another couple of hot days on the way. take a look at what happens as we head into the weekend. sydney moves from 26 degrees on thursday, back up to 35 on saturday. this certainly is going to be a continued thread of more bru brushfires. another threat to talk about for australia, though. this one is a tropical cyclone, heading toward the northwestern coast of australia. it has strengthened in the last 24 hours. winds sustained at 120 kilometers per hour. it looks like it will continue strengthening as it heads toward northwestern coast. already, gale warnings in place, which means we'll feel the gale force winds within 24 to 48 hours here. more on that story. let's head now to eastern asia, where japan is likely to get ver